cause they have ftood more faft, and hold in this point the egos or Traditions of the Apoftles, which the Ancients have been taught whether by Word or by Writing, without any material Variation; tho' it may happen that fuch as hold thefe may easily be notwithstanding mistaken in the particular Application: As it hath indeed happened to this great Metropolitan, if my Information be right. This, if fo, a fight of the Book it felf, will presently determine, fo foon as it can be had. As for my felf yet I have no manner of Curiofity to fee what has been written in Mufcovy upon this Subject after having read and confidered leifurely what you have written upon it in England. Than which I can fee nothing more Primitive, nor can expect any thing more candid and Satisfactory from the greateft Patriarch, (or o ther) of that Church which has, the beft of any, preserved the Traditions concerning The Antichrift, to which I suppose with you, St. Paul alludes. And after having alfo firft Thought my felf into this very Opinion, after that I had canvaffed a great many Authors on this very Subject who held the oppofite and (amongit us) common Sentiment, with no manner of Satiffaction; give me leave to tell you, Sir, without Flattery, that having been hence for thefe many Years paft perfectly of the Judgment of the ancient holy Fathers, in this Matter, with your felf, I am now exceedingly encouraged and frengthened herein by what you have in this Difcourfe faid fo well to the purpofe; the which I take to be highly Probable upon Catholick Principles. And in this I am the more fully confirmed by that moft excellent and truly primitive Difcourfe in S. Ephrem Syrus, i τί ἀντιχες, which has been juft prefented to the World in the new Edition of his Works from the Bodleian Manufcripts, and in the Reading whereof as I compared it with yours and reflected at the fame time upon fome modern Phænomena in the World, I have found no fmall Pleasure, for Reafons that will be obvious to any that shall read the same with a well disposed Heart, and Chriftian Simplicity. And therefore I could wish that for the fake of the common Reader, who either cannot have accefs to, or understand it in the Original, or rather Authentick Copy made in his own Life time from the Syrjack, that this were done into English with fome short Notes, and added as a finishing stroke to compleat the Work. For in the Opinion of fome, whofe Judgment as well as Learning is defervedly reverenced by the best Judges of both, nothing can be more proper than fuch a lively and pathetical Defcription of what is treated by you, given both in the Senfe and Words of Antiquity; after that you have done fo much to demonftrate the Doctrine of the Ancients to -be preferable to that of the Moderns, as alfo of the Catholick to that of of a par- ticular Church, or of any feparate Body lately Protefting (if yet any body of Proteftants teftants have actually determined the contrary as an Article of Faith, and not rather fuppofed the fame meerly as a probable Opinion). Not but that I am fenfible enough that there are fome Particular Opinions, or Conjectures, which fome of thefe Ancients have left us concerning the Perfon of this laft Grand Enemy of Chrift and his Church, which yet have not the fame Pretences to a Catholick Tradition as the Doctrine it felf has, that will appear to a great many to be very Odd and Unphilofophical, and will be doubtlefs ridicul'd by the Gentlemen of Mirth and Humour, who cannot bear to hear of any thing out of the ordinary Courfe of Nature. But notwithftanding this, I am indeed rather but the more confirm'd herein; though I may be perhaps as much fhock'd too with any thing that is really against Nature, (when underftood) as they themselves who make the Outcry. Since it is no good Argument, I think, against either the Truth of a Do&trine, or the Univerfality of its Recep tion, that there may be fuperftructed upon it Hay and Stubble; or that all Men do not hold the Truth in Sobriety, or Argue from it Confiftently. But rather even the moft Groundless and Abfurd Inventions and Opinions that can ever be, when they are engrafted upon Doctrines generally receiv'd, and true in themfelves, are fo far from prejudicing me against thefe DoArines; as that I am fo much the more hereby ftimulated to look to the Foundation, leaving thefe behind and to con clude clude that there muft needs be fomewhat confiderable therein, when for the fake of it nothing almoft is fo Grofs or Extravagant but it has been fwallow'd together with it. Inftances hereof in abundance could easily be given: But after having nam'd the Exiftence of a Deity and the Immortality of Human Souls, I need, I fuppofe, fay no more. Now as to the prefent Cafe, as I am not oblig'd to believe all the private Notions of Ancient Writers relating to your Subject, that was univerfally believ'd, but differently Explain'd: So neither can I fo abfolutely condemn those of them, which may appear at first the most fhocking to our common Comprehensions, without I better understood the Springs and Refources of Nature,than I will pretend to; and fuppofing the very utmoft that the whole Superftructure of the Primitive Holy Fathers (and thofe too that were next to the Apoftolical Age) is too Airy and Imaginary, yet I cannot but fee that the Fundamental Stone thereof, as relating to the Perfon of Antichrift, remains never the lefs firm and unmoveable. Notwithftanding let the event hereof be whatever it will, it is your Business, Sir, to reprefent the Sentiments of thofe Ancient Witneffes for the Truths of Christianity, not as you would have them, but as you find them; nor to conceal what may make against you, any more than what makes for you; and I muft needs fay I am abundantly more pleas'd with your Candour and Ingenuity in nakedly reciting what the An cients cients have deliver'd, as well where they may be mistaken as where not; than if you had drefs'd up never fo delicate a Theory of your Own, and adapted to it fome of their Sayings in the moft plaufible Manner. For their very Mistakes may be of no fmall use, by a due Application of them; and may teach us what was then held to be Apoftolical Doctrine, without involving us at all in their Explications of it, or Deductions from it; which ought to be of no more Weight than they carry their Evidence along with them. And after all I find nothing advanc'd by them, which our Modern Criticks can take any Exception against, which doth not manifeftly fuppofe one or all of these Three Pofitions, concerning the Great Antichrift, viz. 1. That he fhall be a Particular Perfon. 2.That he fhall endeavour in all Things to mimick Chrift. And 3. That he fhall be an vegy, or one Poffeffed and Acted by the Devil. All which may certainly be moft True, and believ'd in as the Catholick Doctrine, at the time wherein they wrote; let never fo many Objections be made against the Poffibility in Nature of fome of their Explications thereof; who were doubtlefs better Chriftians than Philofophers. Now as to the Time of Antichrift's Appearance, the Hints which you have given, are certainly too confiderable to be defpifed: tho' in all Refearches of this nature, I confefs, we ought to be very modeft, and especially to take heed of over-curious Calculations and Dif quifitions; which are not for Edification, and |